Halloween Makeup Guides


How To: Make a Fake Bullet Wound on Your Head
A bullet wound to the head is one type of fake wound you probably don't have to worry about people thinking is real. If it was, you'd be dead!

How To: Do a Makeup Bruised Halloween Black Eye & Bloody Nose
Petrilude brings you this bruised and busted Halloween makeup look. Learn how to give yourself a quick bruised look and bloody nose very easily and with little effort involved. This works for Halloween, as well as special effects for filmmaking. No stage makeup needed (Petrilude uses MAC makeup).

How To: Go Green This Halloween with These DIY Gamora Makeup Looks
With Guardians of the Galaxy's popularity this year, Gamora will obviously be the go-to costume for anyone looking to stand out in a crowd. Not only is she a strong, intergalactic warrior, but she's the perfect persona when you need to become part of your friends' group Guardians costume. Of course, when becoming Gamora, it's important to keep your uniqueness—an easy task when there are so many different makeup and DIY-based options.

How To: Do Lady Gaga's Creepy "Applause" Clown Makeup for Halloween
Lady Gaga's fashion choices are... interesting, to say the least. I mean, she wore a dress made of raw meat to the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards, and don't even get me started on that giant egg from the Red Carpet for her arrival to the 2011 Grammys.

How To: The 15 Best Sugar Skull Makeup Looks for Halloween
Skull, or calavera, makeup is an obvious choice for Halloween, since Día de Muertos (aka Día de los Muertos or simply Day of the Dead) starts on the very same day, Oct. 31. They are very intricate designs that resemble the decorated sugar skulls that take over the Mexican holiday.

How To: Create Fallen Angel/Dark Fairy Makeup for Halloween
Learn how to create a dark fairy/fallen angel look for Halloween with these tips from makeup artist Julia Graf. This look is perfect for any spooky occasion, while also making any normal day out of the year more interesting.

How To: One-Up All the Other 'Guardians of the Galaxy' Costumes as Mantis (Makeup & Antennae Guide)
In Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Mantis resides in the shadow of an Ego who considers himself the actual heart of the universe. But when it comes Halloween costumes? Mantis will be the center of attention every time. The internet sure has noticed Mantis, and it's abuzz with debate over who she is. Is she just another iteration of the submissive Asian woman stereotype? Or is her character an empowering representation of empathy and the autism spectrum?

Hunger Games: DIY Effie Trinket Butterfly Makeup & Costume for Halloween
Mockingjay - Part 2, the final film in the Hunger Games series, hits theaters next month, and what better way to celebrate one of the series' most fabulous characters than with an over-the-top costume this Halloween?

How To: Make Realistic-Looking Fake Blood
Store-bought fake blood isn't too expensive, but the consistency and color are always the same. Real blood varies, from bright red when oxygenated (arterial blood) to deep, dark red when deoxygenated (venous blood), and it can be either thick or thin. So to achieve the best special effect, you're better off making a batch of DIY fake blood yourself to get the look and texture you're going for. And it's very simple to do.

How To: Transform into Eleven from 'Stranger Things' for Halloween (Costume & Makeup Guide)
Since its debut, retro thriller Stranger Things and its characters have become ingrained in our popular culture — especially the telekinetic Eleven. For cosplayers, it didn't take long before they grabbed their boxes of frozen Eggo waffles, blonde wigs (or bald caps), and pink smocked dresses to transform into El herself.

How To: Blacken Out Your Teeth Using Eyeliner
If you don't have any black teeth wax on hand, the next best thing to blacking out one tooth in your mouth, or creating animal fangs, for a Halloween costume is eyeliner. Just make sure it's waterproof, non-toxic eyeliner, and you'll need to use Vaseline to seal it properly. Of course, you won't want to eat while this is applied, or it'll come off. It rubs off very easily when it's time to get rid of your black tooth/teeth.

After Halloween Guide: How to Remove Makeup, Face Paint, Fake Blood & Body Glue from Skin & Clothing
Becoming someone else for Halloween is a lot of fun, but it can take a ton of tools to accomplish. An elaborate costume can require you to slather yourself in all kinds of makeup, paints, and glues, and putting it on is only half the work. The real fun starts when the party's over, and you have to remove it all.

How To: Perfect the Cheshire Cat's Purple Makeup Look for Halloween
The Cheshire Cat isn't like other famous cartoon cats: he's brilliantly purple and hot pink, ever smiling and entirely unnatural. However, he makes for a perfect Halloween costume, with his bright, neon appearance and mysterious nature.

How To: Infect Yourself with Greyscale from 'Game of Thrones' for Halloween (Makeup Guide)
There aren't many people who will believe that a prosthetic zipper face or gunshot wound to the eye (disgusting as they are) are real, but greyscale from Game of Thrones? That'll really unsettle people for awhile because it totally looks like an actual, honest-to-God infection that someone in 2017 could conceivably have. Which makes it very effective come Halloween, whether it's for a full-on Princess Shireen, Jorah Mormont, or Stone Man costume, or to just infect a completely different chara...

Be Maleficent for Halloween: DIY Horns, Dress & Makeup for Cheap
Casting Angelina Jolie as Maleficent was a no-brainer on Disney's part. No one else could project beauty, elegance, and fear simultaneously just like the animated villain in Sleeping Beauty did. But what sets the character apart from other evil witches, or any other Disney character for that matter, is the sinister, yet gorgeous-looking horns and headdress. And with news that a Maleficent sequel is currently in the works, this will surely be a great Halloween costume this year.

How To: Create a Punk Rock Witch Makeup Look for Halloween
Thanks to "Mean Girls," we now know that Halloween is the only time you can dress like a slut and get away with it. Which means that if your concept of a witch costume still includes a crooked nose, warts, and a green face, then you're living way in the past, honey. Blast forward to the future—and the sexier side of things—by dressing up as a sexy witch this Halloween.

Chicks Do Gore: 10 Nauseating Halloween Makeup Tutorials
Being a male, I may be the only one among my gender stating this, but I'm sick of girls using Halloween as an excuse to dress scantily. Why can't more girls skip the playboy bunny costume and get this gnarly? Below, ten badass Halloween looks executed by girls only...

AHS: DIY Twisty the Clown Makeup FX Ideas for Halloween
Every season of American Horror Story introduces characters who are truly terrifying. From the witches of Coven to the ghostly resident of the show's first season, each new chapter of the TV series offers a host of ghoulish and ghastly costume ideas perfect for scaring children on Halloween. Some grisly characters even span multiple series.

Horrifying Halloween Makeup: DIY Scarred Face with Flayed Human Skin Mask
As if skinning a human wasn't sick enough on its own, there's people out there that take it a step further by wearing it. The most notable example would be Ed Gein, the inspiration for such horrific characters as Leatherface, Buffalo Bill, and Bloody Face, but the practice has been around for some time, and not necessarily paraphiliac in nature.

Inside Out: DIY Sadness Costume & Makeup for Halloween
Sadness won over the worried world with her downtrodden, mopey attitude in Inside Out, the widely popular animated film from Pixar and Disney. She's relatable, helping us to connect with all of our bouts of tears, sour attitudes, and blue feelings—and this Halloween, you can embody Sadness with this easy DIY makeup tutorial via Rotoscopers.